Wednesday, April 5, 2017

Plight Of Civilians In The Battle For Mosul, Interview With Amnesty International’s Donatella Rovera

As the battle for Mosul enters its sixth month there are
growing concerns about the damage and casualties it is causing. The Jadida
incident where a Coalition air strike was blamed for over two hundred civilian
deaths highlighted the rising costs incurred from the fighting. To help
describe the situation is Amnesty International’s Donatella Rovera who has been
interviewing people in Mosul and Ninewa during the campaign. She can be
followed on Twitter @DRovera.

1. I interviewed some
reporters who were in east Mosul at the end of 2016 when the Iraqi forces first
entered the city. They said that there were some buildings that had been
destroyed, but most of the city seemed in tact. How does west Mosul compare to
east Mosul in terms of damage from the fighting?

Destruction
in East Mosul is indeed limited, certainly more limited than in West Mosul,
though ongoing fighting does not for now permit a comprehensive assessment of
the situation and damage in the west of the city.

2. From the start of
the Mosul campaign in October 2016 the Islamic State has been using human
shields, but how they have used these people seems to have changed. At first,
the insurgents were just using civilians to cover their retreat, but now they
are forcing people into houses they are using as fire positions. Is that an
accurate assessment of IS’s tactics? Have you interviewed any people that have
been used by the Islamic State for this role, and what was their experience
like?

The
modus operandi of IS and its heinous crimes have long been known, so nothing
surprises us from them. I have not personally met people who had been forced
into houses or other locations by IS, but some residents have told me that IS
did not permit them to leave their homes. In other cases by the time IS started
to use their rooftops as sniping positions, the residents could not leave
because of intensive fighting around, or because they did not know where to
go. Others still did not leave because they thought that, in the
circumstances, they would be safe if they stayed in their homes. Some did
leave their homes and went to shelter with relatives and
neighbors

3. The Islamic State
has been manipulating the population, but the Iraqi government also told the
people of Mosul to stay in the city during the fighting. Do you think that was
a wrong move?

Residents
whose relatives were killed in their homes by coalition air strikes certainly
think so, and many question – rightly - the decision to bomb and destroy whole houses
with entire families inside instead of targeting individual IS operatives on
the roofs. We have been seeing a much greater number of residents fleeing West
Mosul than was the case in the east of the city, perhaps in part because
residents have realized that heeding the government advice to remain in their
homes is not necessarily the safest option.

4. Both the Iraqis
and Coalition said they wanted to increase the use of airstrikes, mortars, and
artillery to retake west Mosul. At the same time neither wants to harm
civilians. Have they been able to balance out these two desires so far?

The
military campaign to recapture West Mosul is still ongoing and the situation
remains fluid – for example it seems that since reports surfaced of a large
number of civilian casualties resulting from a coalition air strike on 17
March, there have been fewer air strikes. As for artillery and mortars,
their margin of error and wide blast radius make them unsuitable for combat in
densely populated residential area because of the risk for civilians.
Though civilian casualties are an unfortunate part of urban warfare, the
warring parties have obligations under international law to take all feasible
precautions to minimize harm to civilians. Have all feasible precautions been
taken so far? No. Can more be done to protect civilians? Yes, a lot more
can and must be done.

IRAQ HISTORY TIMELINE

TWITTER

About Me

Musings On Iraq was started in 2008 to explain the political, economic, security and cultural situation in Iraq via original articles and interviews. If you wish to contact me personally my email is: motown67@aol.com